Russia accuses West of 'de facto' fighting in Ukraine

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24: Western powers through their support for Ukraine are "de facto" fighting against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday, as Kyiv claimed fresh advances on the ground.

"You can call it anything you want, but they are fighting with us, they are straight-up fighting with us," Lavrov told journalists at the United Nations.

"We call it a hybrid war, but that doesn't change things."
Westerners are "de facto fighting against us, using the hands and bodies of Ukrainians," Lavrov said, pointing to the billions of dollars in Western military equipment provided to Kyiv since Russia attacked last year.

He also indicated the US and British intelligence support and the presence of Western military advisors.

Officials in Kyiv reported breaking through Russian defence lines in the south.

And its army said that senior Russian navy commanders had been among dozens killed or wounded in a missile attack on Moscow's Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Crimea.

Oleksandr Tarnavskiy, the Ukrainian general leading the counteroffensive around the Zaporizhzhia area in the south, told US media that the advance was still underway.

"On the left flank (near the village of Verbove) we have a breakthrough, and we continue to advance further," he told CNN in an interview released Friday.

Progress had been "not as fast as it was expected -- not like in the movies about the Second World War," he added. But it was important, he added, "not to lose this initiative".

Ukraine launched its counteroffensive to claw back territory from Russian forces in June. Progress has been slow, with much of the territory heavily mined.

But Kyiv has in recent weeks reported making strategic advances in the Zaporizhzhia region. And Tarnavskiy did not accept that Ukraine's push could be further slowed in the coming winter months.

"The weather can be a serious obstacle during advance, but considering how we move forward, mostly without vehicles, I don't think (it) will heavily influence the counteroffensive," he said.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an aide to President Volodymyr Zelensky, spelt out Kyiv's position on the prospects of a long, drawn-out war.
"Are the Ukrainian people happy about the prospect of a long war of attrition?" he wrote Saturday on X, formerly Twitter. "Absolutely not.

"We are following this path only because there is no other way today."

Meanwhile, Russia is ready for talks on Ukraine, but will not consider any ceasefire proposals because Moscow has already been deceived once, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

"We are working in the real situation that has developed. <...> In March and April 2022 there were negotiations, everything was already initialed. But two days later there was Bucha (the events in the Ukrainian city of Bucha - TASS), because, I think, someone in London or Washington does not want this war to end," the top diplomat said at a press conference following the 78th session of the UN General Assembly. "That is why now, when we hear about negotiations, [Russian President Vladimir] Putin commented on it, he said very clearly: yes, we are ready for negotiations, but we will not consider any proposals for a ceasefire, because we've considered it once, but you deceived us," Lavrov pointed out.

The top Russian diplomat pointed out that the West had forbidden Kiev to negotiate with Moscow. "We were not only ready, we agreed to negotiate, we reached an agreement in April 2022. And after that, as I understand it, [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky was told: since they agreed so quickly, let's exhaust them," the foreign minister said.    �AFP, TASS